About 1830 Whittier, then twenty-three years of age, contributed to the Courier of Northampton, Massachusetts, a poem which is not to be found in any of his published works. The verses, crude though they are, appear to throw light on his parting from Miss Downing. The title is: "To ----, by John G. Whittier." We append a few of the stanzas:
I know that I have knelt too lowly
For smiles so oft withdrawn;
That trusting love received too slowly
The lesson of thy scorn;
That thou hast had thy triumph hour
Unquestioned and complete,
When prompted by a spell of power
I knelt me at thy feet.
'Tis over now; the charm is broken,
The feverish dream is fled;
And pass away like thoughts unspoken
The vows that I have said.
I give thee back thy plighted word;
Its tones of love shall be
Like music by the slumberer heard,
A dreamer's melody.
Go now, the light of hope is on thee,
Thy love claims are o'er.
A thousand smiles thy charms have won thee—
They'll win a thousand more;
For beauty hath a charming spell
Upon the human will—
Though false the heart it veils so well,
It hath its homage still.
Go, heartless girl, thou'lt smile to-morrow,
As I had never been,
And spurn thy lover's words of sorrow
For those of happier men.
A darker destiny the page
Of coming years may tell.
God help thee in thy pilgrimage!
Loved being, fare thee well!
WHERE SANTA CLAUS HAS HIS WORKSHOP.
AN OLD VILLAGE OF TOYMAKERS.
For Many Generations the Inhabitants of
St. Ulrich Have Fashioned Playthings
for the Children of All Nations.
Tourists, wandering out of the beaten tracks of their kind, occasionally come to a little village in Austria which presents the aspect of a corner of toyland.